Recommendations and conclusions of the 14th International Steering Committee meeting

Under the Presidency of the Republic of Serbia, XIV. International Steering Committee (ISC)_ Meeting was held in Belgrade on September 4-5, 2008.

ISC parties agreed as follows:

Recommendations:

1. Priorities of the Serbian Presidency are: housing (legalization and improvement of informal Roma settlements), combating discrimination in education, development of evaluation and monitoring system.2. Decade Members will continue efforts aiming at the development of the European Roma Policy.3. Decade Country Members should use sources provided by the EU through Structural and Pre- Accession Funds for the implementation of the National Action Plans. 4. Decade Country Members will consider options for the development and implementation of recommendations given in the Guidelines for Legalization and Improvement of Informal Roma Settlements that were presented at the meeting5. Decade Country Members will consider the need of continuous monitoring and evaluation of the Decade results in all the priority areas as well as the development and implementation of a common evaluation and monitoring system based on agreed indicators.6. For the effective and efficient utilization of the Decade Trust Fund potential applicants need to be more proactive and innovative and cooperate closer in project development.7. Invitation and joining process of new countries and international organization to the Decade will be continued.

Conclusions:

1. New full members of the Decade of Roma Inclusion are Bosnia and Herzegovina, UN-Habitat and UNHCR.2. Decade Trust Fund threshold is EURO 20,000 per application and approving procedure is being simplified- approval by no-objection basis is introduced.